The present invention pertains to the radio receiver blanking art and, in particular, to a doubly balanced blanker gate having symmetric, diode shunt switching.
Gating networks which provide a blanking function are well known in the ratio receiver art. Such gates are normally series connected in the receiver chain thus providing a means to gate the received signal in response to a blanking signal from the blanker.
Prior art blanking networks have, however, required engineering tradeoffs rendering a less than ideal blanking system. For example, since the blanker is inserted between two existing radio stages, impedance mismatches between the stages and the blanker gate may result in decreased signal transfer, and mistuning of the receiver, thereby retarding receiver sensitivity and signal to noise ratio. Since impedance matching to tuned stages normally implies a tuned network, tuned blankers have suffered from inadequate transient response. Fast turn-on and turn-off of a tuned circuit normally results in ringing which produces an annoying audible response from the receiver.